Validated
self-evaluation
East Dunbartonshire Council
Educational Psychology Service
August 2015
Contents
Page
1.
What is validated self-evaluation in Educational Psychology
Services?
1
2.
What was validated self-evaluation in East Dunbartonshire
Council Educational Psychology Service?
1
3.
What did HM Inspectors learn about the quality of self-evaluation
in East Dunbartonshire Council Educational Psychology Service?
2
4.
What does the Educational Psychology Service plan to do next?
3
5.
What is East Dunbartonshire Council Educational Psychology
Service’s capacity for improvement?
3
1. What is validated self-evaluation in Educational Psychology Services?
Validated self-evaluation (VSE) is an evaluative activity which supports and challenges
the work of Educational Psychology Services (EPS) by working collaboratively. It
involves a partnership between the Education Authority, EPS and HM Inspectors,
Education Scotland. In EPS the VSE focuses on two key themes.


Learning and Teaching.
Partnership Working.
The themes reflect the Scottish Government’s national priorities and relate to the
contributions made by EPS to raising attainment, addressing disadvantage and
supporting and implementing, Getting it Right For Every Child. Both themes also allow
EPS to evidence the impact and outcomes of early intervention and prevention across
the full range of their service delivery.
In addition to the core themes, services can choose an additional one to reflect their
own context. The other area may relate to the core themes or reflect other quality
indicators which impact on the service’s ability to improve outcomes for its stakeholders.
For example, leadership, or the delivery of the five Currie (2002) functions of
consultation and advice, assessment, intervention, professional development and
research and development.
2. What was validated self-evaluation in East Dunbartonshire Council
Educational Psychology Service?
East Dunbartonshire Council Educational Psychology Service (EDCEPS) used the
validated self-evaluation to extend and develop their existing knowledge of their
strengths and areas for development across a wide range of service functions. Using
their self-evaluation data they identified two areas in learning and teaching and
partnership working which they wanted to investigate more deeply. The Service
decided to evaluate the impact of EDCEPS’:
1. involvement in Literacy Action Research and the use of Addressing Barriers to
Learning (ABLe) inclusion framework; and
2. involvement in authority wide autism training and the development of language and
communication friendly nurseries.
Their existing self-evaluation data suggested that both ABLe and Literacy Action
Research were helping to build practitioners’ skills and knowledge, but the evidence
was unclear about exactly what was making the difference and therefore how the
Service could improve. Similarly in the partnership theme, the Service’s self-evaluation
data suggested that multi-agency training was effective at the time of delivery and at
follow up. They now wanted to evaluate and clarify further the impact and outcomes for
children.
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In relation to the Service’s self-evaluation process they chose to reflect on the following
key questions during the VSE:



Does the evidence we have gathered for the two themes validate our
self-evaluation?
Are there changes to our self-evaluation in relation to the two themes?
What have we learned going forward taking account of the VSE findings in relation
to the specific themes, and self-evaluation more generally?
To gather evidence to help them answer the above questions, EDCEPS created
two themed groups, each chaired by a member of the Senior Leadership team in the
Service. Each themed group comprised of relevant partners who had been involved in
the management or delivery of the interventions or training. Prior to Education Scotland
joining the themed groups, the Service had met with their self-evaluation partners to
look at existing evidence for each theme and to generate questions which they would
like to explore in more detail during the VSE week. The activities were timetabled
during the VSE week to enable the Service to gather the information required to fill the
gaps in their self-evaluation. A wide range of focus groups, school visits, and interviews
were undertaken by theme group members. After each activity, theme groups met to
reflect on what they had found and to begin to identify strengths and areas for
improvement.
3.
What did HM Inspectors learn about the quality of self-evaluation in
East Dunbartonshire Council Educational Psychology Service?
EDCEPS demonstrated very effective and robust processes for evaluating their
performance. Since their inspection in 2010 by HM Inspectors, EDCEPS had built on
their strengths and were now much more focused and efficient in evaluating their
impact. Their self-evaluation report was clearly linked to their Improvement Plan and to
that of the Education and Children’s Services. They had also become much more
integrated into strategic developments within the authority by becoming part of the
authority’s Education Leadership Team. The overall self-evaluation, thematic report
and activities chosen for further exploration were well defined demonstrating high
quality thinking and coherence from one process to the next. The Service recognised
the need to better support the evaluative statements in their self-evaluation reports with
appropriate evidence. The questions asked during the VSE were probing and
appropriately focused on impact and outcomes. Analysis of the data collected from
focus groups, observations and interviews was rigorous and used to triangulate
evidence very well. At all times, members of the themed groups focused on the key
questions set out clearly by the Chairs at the beginning, during and end of each day.
This ensured that quality information was provided to help the Service identify high level
strengths in the themed areas and in their overall approach to self-evaluation. The
Service benefited from the challenge provided by partners and responded positively by
using the challenge to reflect deeply on their practice and the implications for future
engagement. The themed groups also benefited from HM Inspector’s scaffolding of
how to unpick and analyse more deeply the responses from stakeholders to help clarify
the exact features of their interventions which were making a positive impact.
HM Inspector’s input resulted in theme group members using more open questions and
challenging stakeholders’ answers more to ensure reliability and better quality
information. More opportunity for sampling a wider range of stakeholder views and in
2
particular those of children and young people would have strengthened and enhanced
the Service’s self-evaluation. The VSE produced very good information to help the
Service improve their performance. In particular, it was clear that the Service’s input to
Literacy Action Research was highly valued by Headteachers and classroom teachers.
The Service’s input to action enquiry should be developed further to support strategic
developments related to transformational change and raising attainment for all.
Similarly, in the partnership theme, the Service’s input to training was regarded
positively but needed to be better integrated into the authority‘s staff development
programme to make it sustainable and more effective.
Overall, the VSE was very successful in helping EDCEPS to identify next steps for each
of the themes and will be used to inform their action plan for 2015/16.
4. What does the Educational Psychology Service plan to do next?
EDCEPS identified a number of key strengths and areas for development both in
relation to the themes and their overall quality improvement process. These can be
seen in detail in the Service’s report
http://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/content/education_and_learning/schools/schools___p
sychological_serv.aspx
Education Scotland identified three key areas which will make a substantial difference to
the value added by the Service:



5.
Be clear and focused about what the Service does well and use these strengths to
build capacity in others thereby releasing time to innovate and create;
Continue to build on the close relationship with the EA to ensure best value and
high quality outcomes from partnership working across the Council; and
Use their psychological knowledge to help the EA’s transformational change
agenda.
What is East Dunbartonshire Council Educational Psychology Service’s
capacity for improvement?
EDCEPS has demonstrated very strong capacity for continuous improvement. The
service has been well-led by the Acting Principal and Depute Principal Educational
Psychologists. However, there is a vital need to address the long-term temporary
appointments within the Service to provide Education Scotland with confidence that the
Service will continue to have the capacity for improvement.
Dr Laura-Ann Currie
Lead Facilitator
7 August 2015
Further information about the EPS VSE reports and self-evaluation can be found on the
service’s website
http://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/content/education_and_learning/schools/schools___p
sychological_serv.aspx
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Education Scotland
Denholm House
Almondvale Business Park
Almondvale Way
Livingston EH54 6GA
T +44 (0)141 282 5000
E enquiries@educationscotland.gov.uk
www.educationscotland.gov.uk